In this free screening on Bell Let’s Talk Day, witness the impact childhood trauma can have over a lifetime through the story of master impressionist, comedian and Saturday Night Live veteran Darrell Hammond. While shining brilliantly in the spotlight, Hammond struggled with drugs, alcohol and debilitating flashbacks—and was misdiagnosed by doctors for decades. Not until a suicide attempt brought him together with Dr. Nabil Kotbi was he properly treated, unleashing the memories his brain had locked away for over 50 years. Director Michelle Esrick balances humour and tragedy to create a poignant story of hope and resilience.

Followed by a Q&A with director Michelle Esrick and special guests.

In partnership with Bell Let’s Talk and Hot Docs, we’re showcasing a series of free docs-and-conversations about mental health leading up to and on the 10th annual Bell Let’s Talk Day. Join the conversation to break the stigma around mental illness and help create positive change. Each doc will feature a post-screening Q&A with special guests and experts.

In recognition of the potentially triggering content of the participating films, supportive listeners will be present at each screening.

Tickets: FREE (maximum of two per person). Available as of Tuesday, January 7.

Wildly popular singer-songwriter Michael Hutchence created a new sensation as the enigmatic frontman of the Australian band INXS, but what do we really know about this shining star who left the world far too soon? Peeling away the myths surrounding the singer’s untimely suicide, director Richard Lowenstein unravels how a life-altering brain injury led Hutchence on a tragic downward spiral into depression. Weaving together home movies and interviews with loved ones, including ex-girlfriends Kylie Minogue and Helena Christensen, this Hot Docs ‘19 selection is a deeply poignant tribute to one of music’s most misunderstood showmen.

Followed by a Q&A with special guests and subject matter experts.

In partnership with Bell Let’s Talk and Hot Docs, we’re showcasing a series of free docs-and-conversations about mental health leading up to and on the 10th annual Bell Let’s Talk Day. Join the conversation to break the stigma around mental illness and help create positive change. Each doc will feature a post-screening Q&A with special guests and experts.

In recognition of the potentially triggering content of the participating films, supportive listeners will be present at each screening.

Tickets: FREE (maximum of two per person). Available as of Tuesday, January 7.

Trace the tumultuous and triumphant journey of Yayoi Kusama, the Infinity Mirrors visionary who overcame mental health struggles to become the biggest-selling female artist in the world. Emerging as a rival to Andy Warhol in the ‘60s, the Japanese artist battled with childhood trauma, prejudice and depression, voluntarily spending over three decades living in a Tokyo psychiatric hospital and using art therapy as a way to cope. Kusama: Infinity beautifully delves into her astonishingly prolific career, the influence of her dazzling polka-dotted visions—which she describes as “art medicine”—and the power of embracing weirdness.

Followed by a Q&A with special guests and subject matter experts.

In partnership with Bell Let’s Talk and Hot Docs, we’re showcasing a series of free docs-and-conversations about mental health leading up to and on the 10th annual Bell Let’s Talk Day. Join the conversation to break the stigma around mental illness and help create positive change. Each doc will feature a post-screening Q&A with special guests and experts.

In recognition of the potentially triggering content of the participating films, supportive listeners will be present at each screening.

Tickets: FREE (maximum of two per person). Available as of Tuesday, January 7.

Hair is just keratin protein and dead skin cells. Yet beauty standards today and historically have made hair and its appearance a signifier of status. When you are dissatisfied with the state of your hair, each hair care advertisement is a microaggression advocating anything but otherness.

Foxy is a spunky film that debunks the social stigma surrounding alopecia universalis by interweaving a scripted memoir of director Trista Suke’s personal story with direct-to-camera interviews highlighting people from the community who are also living with hair loss. In flirty fashion, the fictional character Penny Todd tracks a journey of ultimate self acceptance and what it’s like to live as a beautifully bald woman.

Screening with

Consent Is… The Freedom to Choose
Lucy Drumonde | 2019 | Canada | 1 min | Canadian Premiere

In public or private the ethics of informed consent acknowledges the human right to choose.

Isolation by Ann Bekooy
Ann Bekooy | 2019 | Canada | 8 mins | Toronto Premiere

Through a dreamscape of surreal images, artist Ann Bekooy poetically narrates the universal but somehow alienating condition of existence.

Animating Artists’ Health (Shorts Program)
Canada | 19 mins

Animating Artists’ Health features short animations exploring artists’ health and wellbeing. This program is a product of Artist Health Alliance’s Creating Artists’ Health initiative. Featuring shorts by M.C Cruz, Shelton Deverell, Nikole Hidalgo McGregor, Ess Joelle Okemow, Raoul Olou, David Rendall, and Tommy Truong.

Animating Artists’ Health is co-presented with Toronto Animation Society, OCAD Art & Social Change, and OCAD Health and Wellness Centre. 

Sharing your story through film

We will be welcoming the range of filmmakers who are showing work as part of this screening to celebrate and reflect on the power of sharing their stories through film. What is it about the medium of film that has called each of these artists to create these works and how has it empowered them to reveal their vulnerable depths to themselves, audiences and each other?

Winner of the Golden Leopard Award at the 2018 Locarno Film Festival, Chaos tells the story of three women in three cities and asks: what’s the effect of war on the human spirit? As the personal stories of these Syrian women are intimately revealed, Chaos bears witness to the scarred existence of survivors. One woman lives in Damascus, spending her days in silence as she grieves for her teenage son. Another has fled the country to a Swedish village, where she’s coping with traumas by painting. The third woman is Sara Fattahi herself, Chaos’ director, who now lives in Vienna. She’s portrayed on-screen by an actor, while excerpts from a radio interview with the Austrian author Ingeborg Bachmann give expression to Fattahi’s innermost feelings. Fattahi explores the women’s immediate surroundings with equal attention to detail; interiors speak to us, the winds whisper clues and the rain is tangible. Beguiling our senses, Fattahi draws us into the processes of profound grief and inner disengagement.

سارة فتاحي / 2018 / بالعربية والألمانية مع ترجمة إلى الإنجليزية / النمسا ، سوريا ، لبنان ، قطر / 95 دقيقة / العرض الأول في تورونتو

الصنف: وثائقي

الموضوع: الهجرة ، البقاء ، الصدمة ، قضايا المرأة

النوع: فيلم

يروي فيلم “فوضى” الحائز على جائزة الفهد الذهبي في مهرجان لوكارنو السينمائي لعام 2018 قصة ثلاث نساء في ثلاث مدن، متساءلاّّ عن تأثير الحرب على الروح الإنسانية. بينما يتم الكشف عن القصص الشخصية لهؤلاء النساء السوريات بحميمّية، يشهد “فوضى” على وجود الناجين المجروح. تعيش امرأة في دمشق وتقضي أيامها في صمت وهي تحدّ على ابنها المراهق. امرأة أخرى هربت من البلاد إلى قرية سويدية حيث تتعامل مع الصدمة عن طريق الرسم. والمرأة الثالثة هي سارة فتاحي مخرجة الفيلم والتي تعيش الآن في فييّنا، تم تصويرها على الشاشة من قبل ممثلة بينما تعبر مقتطفات من مقابلة إذاعية مع المؤلف النمساوي إنجبورغ باخمان عن مشاعرها الأعمق. تستكشف فتاحي محيط النساء المباشر باهتمام مماثل بالتفاصيل – تتحدث إلينا البنية الداخلية للأماكن وتهمس الريح عن دلالات ويصبح المطر ملموساّّ. تقوم فتاحي بخداع حواسنا وبذلك تجذبنا إلى عمليات الحزن العميق والانسحاب الداخلي.

Displacement and the Syrian Refugee Crisis 

How does displacement affect those living with mental health conditions and how are mental health conditions a result of displacement? As we look at the film Chaos, we will take time to discuss the Syrian refugee crisis and how this global crisis intersects with gender, mental health diagnoses and the importance of sharing these stories.

GETMAD#: انضم إلى الحديث

النزوح وأزمة اللاجئين السوريين

كيف يؤثر النزوح على المصابين بأمراض الصحة النفسية وكيف تظهر حالات الصحة النفسية نتيجة النزوح؟ بعد أن نستعرض فيلم فوضى” سنكرّس بعض الوقت لمناقشة أزمة اللاجئين السوريين وكيف تتقاطع هذه الأزمة العالمية مع النوع الاجتماعي وتشخيصات الصحة النفسية وأهمية مشاركة القصص المتعلقة بها.

Menahem Lang is an Israeli actor with a tragic past. He was raped as a child by several older men from his own community. Lang grew up in the Haredi sect, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community known for its theological conservatism. After confronting one of his abusers, Lang left his hometown of Bnei Brak and hasn’t been back until now. In M, Lang returns to face his community, his trauma and to seek justice. But more than anything, Lang ends up finding other survivors. Shooting her film entirely at night, director Yolande Zauberman follows Lang as he runs into multiple strangers on the streets of his old neighborhood where they all confess the same thing – they were also sexually abused as children by older men in the community. Through many candid interviews in M we learn that child molestation is rampant in their community, turning the abused into abusers in a vicious circle of sexual violence.

Extended Panel: Childhood Sexual Abuse & Recovery 

Join us for an extended discussion following the screening of the documentary M, as we are joined by specialists who work in trauma informed care, childhood sexual abuse and sexuality studies. We will sensitively discuss the realities and impacts of (early) sexual abuse, the complexities of finding treatment and the journey of recovery in the context of observant communities as well as in more secular contexts.

Junha is a 4th grader who doesn’t make friends easily. Afraid he will attack or spit on them, his classmates keep their distance. Junha’s teachers spend most of their time with Junha trying to discipline him or simply understand why he behaves the way he does. But Junha lives on the Autism spectrum: he has little to no control over his impulses. Concerned parents of Junha’s peers question whether he should be educated in the same environment as their kids. While the school advocates for Autism awareness and encourages children to support Junha, many lose their patience. Including Junha. Junha’s Planet is a quiet and powerful observational documentary that addresses some of the most pressing issues at the intersection of disability and education.

Autism in Ontario 

After experiencing Junha’s Planet and the realities of autism education in South Korea, join a panel of educators, parents and advocates to discuss the current state of autism spectrum disorder support in Ontario. How can we support those living on the spectrum as well as the families and educators here at home?

Director Beryl Magoko underwent Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as a child. Unlike many of her peers, she wasn’t forced into it. Feeling pressured by societal expectations, Beryl went through FGM behind her mother’s back. Nobody told her about the pain, guilt and trauma that would follow her into adulthood. Years later, Beryl learns that her FGM can be reversed with the help of reconstructive surgery. But after everything she has been through, she’s hesitant to make a decision. “Will I be making another terrible mistake?” In her documentary account, Beryl is searching for an answer. She asks other women who survived FGM about their experiences and thoughts on reconstructive surgery. By frontlining these stories, Beryl processes her trauma and exposes the extreme misogynist ideologies behind FGM.

Screening with

This River
Erika MacPherson, Katherena Vermette | 2016 | Canada | 19 min

Kyle Kematch and award-winning writer Katherena Vermette offer an Indigenous perspective on the devastating experience of searching for loved ones who have disappeared. Born out of the need to do something, their stories ignite a relationship between resilience and activism.

Q&A with Beryl Magoko

Following the screening of In Search…, join the filmmaker (who is also the subject of the documentary) Beryl Magoko as she discusses working on the film which recounts her journey with reconstructive surgery after surviving Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as a child.

After losing an uncle and two friends to suicide, Zen Buddhist Ittetsu Nemoto made it his life’s work to support individuals struggling with depression and suicidal ideation. Despite cultural taboos from a temple in the high mountains of central Japan, Ittetsu Nemoto takes a community-focused, holistic approach to healing trauma. My Soul Drifts Light Upon a Sea of Trees inscribes the journey and mission of Nemoto as he helps three people find life after limbo. As each person candidly reveals their story of what the edge of life felt like, a therapeutic effect transfixes the audience. With this remarkable film, a quiet plea for a radical shift in the way we think about suicide is heard.

Screening with

Ancestral Mindscapes
Rick Miller | 2019 | Canada | 15 mins | World Premiere

From the traditional territories of the Micmac Nation of Gespeg to the small town of Gaspé, Québec, director Rick Miller reveals to the audience his family’s lineage and how it has defined and illuminated his relationship with mental health.

My Soul Drifts with Ittetsu Nemoto

Join us for a discussion with the subject of My Soul Drifts Light Upon a Sea of Trees. Internationally known Buddhist priest Ittetsu Nemoto will be joining us via Skype to talk about his life’s mission to provide space and time for those who live with depression.